Many selective colleges consider the backgrounds of applicants to improve equity in admissions. However, this information is usually not available for all applicants. We examine whether the chances of admission and enrollment changed after 43 colleges gained access to a new tool that standardizes information on educational disadvantage for all…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) strives to create intelligent machines with human-like abilities. However, like humans, AI can be prone to implicit biases due to flaws in data or algorithms. These biases may cause discriminatory outcomes and decrease trust in AI. Bias in higher education admission may limit access to opportunities and further social…

A Machine Learning framework for predicting enrollment is proposed. The framework consists of Amazon Web Services SageMaker together with standard Python tools for data analytics, including Pandas, NumPy, MatPlotLib, and ScikitLearn. The tools are deployed with Jupyter Notebooks running on AWS SageMaker. Based on three years of enrollment history,…

As the technology landscape is continually evolving, transitions to newer software are commonplace in higher education. Change is often difficult to navigate, especially when the change that is implemented fundamentally impacts entrenched business processes. In no place is this more evident than when implementing a new system, whether the…

Purpose: Prospective students are exposed to abundant choices, and they are eagerly searching for information to select the best universities for themselves. Likewise, prospectuses are regularly produced by universities to meet this information needs; the purpose of this paper is to examine the key marketing messages used in their prospectuses.…

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) applications in the higher education (HE) domain. Agent-based modelling is a "bottom-up" modelling paradigm in which system-level behaviour (macro) is modelled through the behaviour of individual local-level agent interactions (micro).…

In this study, the authors examined the impact of two interventions related to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on postsecondary outcomes of low- to moderate-income individuals. The two interventions were included: (1) providing an estimate of need-based aid compared against tuition costs for nearby colleges and assistance in…

Obtaining diversity among admitted applicants is often a challenging task for most post secondary institutions. As a proposed solution to this challenge, Applications Quest (AQ) was created. AQ addresses the dilemma of how to achieve diversity while still upholding institutional academic standards and objectives while adhering to the law. A steady…

Reports the successful design and implementation of a World Wide Web application for handling graduate applications at the University of Delaware that allows 46 departmental admissions committee faculty and staff to access up-to-the-minute information from their workstations. The application has reduced interdepartmental paperwork and processing…